EXPLORING awe: rome as laboratory

Course Description:

The psychological literature defines awe as an emotional response to physical or conceptual vastness. It’s an expansive feeling that challenges you to see the world differently and to connect with something larger than yourself. In this course, we will build a theoretical understanding of awe, as conceptualized in the psychological, neuroscientific, and philosophical literature, while using Rome–a city rich with history, art, and human achievement–as a natural laboratory for finding and exploring the phenomenology of awe.

Schedule: 

• Monday 1:00-3:30

• Tuesday 1:00-3:30

• Wednesday 1:00-3:30

• Thursday 1:00-3:30

PROF. MICHAEL GRUBB

Professor Grubb received his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from New York University. After finishing his doctoral training, he remained at NYU as a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Neural Science and was a visiting assistant professor at NYU–Shanghai. His doctoral work utilized psychophysical methods and focused on the effects of selective attention on visual perception in typically developing populations and in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. 

As a postdoc, he used structural and functional neuroimaging techniques to evaluate the impact of human aging on value–based decision making. In his lab at Trinity, he utilizes psychophysical and computational approaches to study human perception, from the visual system to the value domain, with a particular focus on attention and spatiotemporal context as critical mediating factors.

Professor Grubb feels as equally at home in the classroom as he does in the lab. Before graduate school, he spent 7 years abroad, teaching full–time in a variety of contexts. He encourages his students to think critically about scientific knowledge, to engage in constructive debate with him and with each other, and to cultivate a curious mind. 

TRINITY STUDENTS: IF YOU WANT MAJOR OR MINOR CREDIT FOR THIS COURSE CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE CREDIT AND GRADES POLICIES.